As my father’s worldly circumstances
were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day’s work and otherwise, as
we could get opportunity. Sometimes we were at home, and sometimes abroad, and by continuous labor were enabled to get a comfortable
maintenance.

In the year 1823 my father’s family
met with a great affliction by the death of my eldest brother, Alvin. In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman
by the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango county, State of New York.
He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna county, State of Pennsylvania;
and had, previous to my hiring to him, been digging, in order, if possible, to discover the mine. After I went to live with
him, he took me, with the rest of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, at which I continued to work for nearly a month,
without success in our undertaking, and finally I prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging after it. Hence arose
the very prevalent story of my having been a money-digger.

During the time that I was thus employed,
I was put to board with a Mr. Isaac Hale, of that place; it was there I first saw my wife (his daughter), Emma Hale. On the
18th of January, 1827, we were married, while I was yet employed in the service of Mr. Stoal.

Owing to my continuing to assert that
I had seen a vision, persecution still followed me, and my wife’s father’s family were very much opposed to our
being married. I was, therefore, under the necessity of taking her elsewhere; so we went and were married at the house of
Squire Tarbill, in South Bainbridge, Chenango county, New York.
Immediately after my marriage, I left Mr. Stoal’s, and went to my father’s, and farmed with him that season.

At length the time arrived for obtaining
the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and
twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger
delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly,
or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he,
the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.

I soon found out the reason why I had
received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done what was required
at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used
to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more
bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom
of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to
arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being
the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.

The excitement, however, still continued,
and rumor with her thousand tongues was all the time employed in circulating falsehoods about my father’s family, and
about myself. If I were to relate a thousandth part of them, it would fill up volumes. The persecution, however, became so
intolerable that I was under the necessity of leaving Manchester, and going with my wife to
Susquehanna county, in the State of Pennsylvania. While
preparing to start—being very poor, and the persecution so heavy upon us that there was no probability that we would
ever be otherwise—in the midst of our afflictions we found a friend in a gentleman by the name of Martin Harris, who
came to us and gave me fifty dollars to assist us on our journey. Mr. Harris was a resident of Palmyra
township, Wayne county, in the State of New York,
and a farmer of respectability.

By this timely aid was I enabled to
reach the place of my destination in Pennsylvania; and immediately
after my arrival there I commenced copying the characters off the plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and by means
of the Urim and Thummim I translated some of them, which I did between the time I arrived at the house of my wife’s
father, in the month of December, and the February following.

Sometime in this month of February,
the aforementioned Mr. Martin Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, and started with
them to the city of New York. For what took place relative
to him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances, as he related them to me after his return, which
was as follows:

"I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof,
to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation
was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet
translated, and he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters. He
gave me a certificate, certifying to the people of Palmyra
that they were true characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the
certificate and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon called me back, and asked me how the
young man found out that there were gold plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had revealed
it unto him.

"He then said to me, ‘Let me see
that certificate.’ I accordingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it to pieces,
saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he would translate
them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, ‘I cannot
read a sealed book.’ I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both
the characters and the translation."

Oliver Cowdery serves as scribe in
translating the Book of Mormon—Joseph and Oliver receive the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist—They are
baptized, ordained, and receive the spirit of prophecy. (Verses 66-75.)

On the 5th day of April, 1829, Oliver
Cowdery came to my house, until which time I had never seen him. He stated to me that having been teaching school in the neighborhood
where my father resided, and my father being one of those who sent to the school, he went to board for a season at his house,
and while there the family related to him the circumstances of my having received the plates, and accordingly he had come
to make inquiries of me.

Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery
(being the 7th of April) I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began to write for me.

We still continued the work of translation,
when, in the ensuing month (May, 1829), we on a certain day went into the woods to pray and inquire of the Lord respecting
baptism for the remission of sins, that we found mentioned in the translation of the plates. While we were thus employed,
praying and calling upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us,
he ordained us, saying:

Upon you my fellow servants, in the
name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of
repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth until
the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.

He said this Aaronic Priesthood had
not the power of laying on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be conferred on us hereafter; and he
commanded us to go and be baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and that afterwards he should
baptize me.

Accordingly we went and were baptized.
I baptized him first, and afterwards he baptized me—after which I laid my hands upon his head and ordained him to the
Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same Priesthood—for so we were commanded.

The messenger who visited us on this
occasion and conferred this Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same that is called John the Baptist in the
New Testament, and that he acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek,
which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on us, and that I should be called the first Elder of the Church,
and he (Oliver Cowdery) the second. It was on the fifteenth day of May, 1829, that we were ordained under the hand of this
messenger, and baptized.

Immediately on our coming up out of
the water after we had been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly Father. No sooner had
I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied many things which should shortly
come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied
concerning the rise of this Church, and many other things connected with the Church, and this generation of the children of
men. We were filled with the Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation.

Our minds being now enlightened, we
began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious
passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of. In the meantime
we were forced to keep secret the circumstances of having received the Priesthood and our having been baptized, owing to a
spirit of persecution which had already manifested itself in the neighborhood.

We had been threatened with being mobbed,
from time to time, and this, too, by professors of religion. And their intentions of mobbing us were only counteracted by
the influence of my wife’s father’s family (under Divine providence), who had become very friendly to me, and
who were opposed to mobs, and were willing that I should be allowed to continue the work of translation without interruption;
and therefore offered and promised us protection from all unlawful proceedings, as far as in them lay.

Oliver Cowdery describes these events
thus: "These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven,
awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated
with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The
Book of Mormon.’

"To notice, in even few words, the interesting
account given by Mormon and his faithful son, Moroni, of a people once beloved and favored of heaven, would supersede my present
design; I shall therefore defer this to a future period, and, as I said in the introduction, pass more directly to some few
incidents immediately connected with the rise of this Church, which may be entertaining to some thousands who have stepped
forward, amid the frowns of bigots and the calumny of hypocrites, and embraced the Gospel of Christ.

"No men, in their sober senses, could
translate and write the directions given to the Nephites from the mouth of the Savior, of the precise manner in which men
should build up His Church, and especially when corruption had spread an uncertainty over all forms and systems practiced
among men, without desiring a privilege of showing the willingness of the heart by being buried in the liquid grave, to answer
a ‘good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’

"After writing the account given of
the Savior’s ministry to the remnant of the seed of Jacob, upon this continent, it was easy to be seen, as the prophet
said it would be, that darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people. On reflecting further it was
as easy to be seen that amid the great strife and noise concerning religion, none had authority from God to administer the
ordinances of the Gospel. For the question might be asked, have men authority to administer in the name of Christ, who deny
revelations, when His testimony is no less than the spirit of prophecy, and His religion based, built, and sustained by immediate
revelations, in all ages of the world when He has had a people on earth? If these facts were buried, and carefully concealed
by men whose craft would have been in danger if once permitted to shine in the faces of men, they were no longer to us; and
we only waited for the commandment to be given ‘Arise and be baptized.’

"This was not long desired before it
was realized. The Lord, who is rich in mercy, and ever willing to answer the consistent prayer of the humble, after we had
called upon Him in a fervent manner, aside from the abodes of men, condescended to manifest to us His will. On a sudden, as
from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us, while the veil was parted and the angel of God came
down clothed with glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message, and the keys of the Gospel of repentance. What joy!
what wonder! what amazement! While the world was racked and distracted—while millions were groping as the blind for
the wall, and while all men were resting upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes beheld, our ears heard, as in the ‘blaze
of day’; yes, more—above the glitter of the May sunbeam, which then shed its brilliancy over the face of nature!
Then his voice, though mild, pierced to the center, and his words, ‘I am thy fellow-servant,’ dispelled every
fear. We listened, we gazed, we admired! ’Twas the voice of an angel from glory, ’twas a message from the Most
High! And as we heard we rejoiced, while His love enkindled upon our souls, and we were wrapped in the vision of the Almighty!
Where was room for doubt? Nowhere; uncertainty had fled, doubt had sunk no more to rise, while fiction and deception had fled
forever!

"But, dear brother, think, further think
for a moment, what joy filled our hearts, and with what surprise we must have bowed, (for who would not have bowed the knee
for such a blessing?) when we received under his hand the Holy Priesthood as he said, ‘Upon you my fellow-servants,
in the name of Messiah, I confer this Priesthood and this authority, which shall remain upon earth, that the Sons of Levi
may yet offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness!’

"I shall not attempt to paint to you
the feelings of this heart, nor the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion; but you will believe me
when I say, that earth, nor men, with the eloquence of time, cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting and sublime
a manner as this holy personage. No; nor has this earth power to give the joy, to bestow the peace, or comprehend the wisdom
which was contained in each sentence as they were delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit! Man may deceive his fellow-men,
deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till
naught but fiction feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave; but one touch
with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the
bosom of eternity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind. The assurance that we were in the
presence of an angel, the certainty that we heard the voice of Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage,
dictated by the will of God, is to me past description, and I shall ever look upon this expression of the Savior’s goodness
with wonder and thanksgiving while I am permitted to tarry; and in those mansions where perfection dwells and sin never comes,
I hope to adore in that day which shall never cease."